Mac OS·783 discussions

Who is listening on a given TCP port on Mac OS X?

Tags: Mac, Software

Hi

On Linux, I can use netstat -pntl | grep $PORT or fuser -n tcp $PORT to find out which process (PID) is listening on the specified TCP port. How do I get the same information on Mac OS X?

Topic

Re: port

In reply to Who is listening on a given TCP port on Mac OS X?

Do you mean that what https://www.lifewire.com/using-netstat-command-on-mac-4176069 says doesn’t work?

Reply To: Who is listening on a given TCP port on Mac OS X?

In reply to Who is listening on a given TCP port on Mac OS X?

Personally I’ve end up with this simple function in my ~/.bash_profile:

listening() {
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
sudo lsof -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P
elif [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
sudo lsof -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P | grep -i –color $1
else
echo “Usage: listening [pattern]”
fi
}
Then listening command gives you a listing of processes listening on some port and listening smth greps this for some pattern.

Having this, it’s quite easy to ask about particular process, e.g. listening dropbox, or port, e.g. listening 22.

lsof command has some specialized options for asking about port, protocol, process etc. but personally I’ve found above function much more handy, since I don’t need to remember all these low-level options. lsof is quite powerful tool, but unfortunately not so comfy to use.

[Author]

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